#''I'm gonna remind you that it's been 4 years but I'm still a Mexican''

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Finally watching the Tommy and Quackity video since I'm getting some food ready and can't look at the subtitles on Pac's stream while I'm doing that, and man :') It's nice hearing Quackity immediately say "Hey, I don't do that anymore" when Tommy tries to initiate an old sorta uncomfortable bit using "Mexican" accents (it's also nice hearing Tommy be like "yeah that felt vaguely offensive when I used to do that as a 16 year old")

[thethingything]

hi! do you have a favorite kind of bug? if so, what is it?

I have several that I really like so I'm gonna make a list of them! they're not really in any particular order, they're just kind of a group of favourites. I think this is gonna be mostly lepidoptera lol.

1. Sphingidae just in general, but especially Elephant Hawkmoths, Death's Head Hawkmoths, and the Pacific Green Sphinx. the two brown caterpillars we had last year were Elephant Hawkmoths and I still can't believe we actually got to raise some

(image sources: Elephant Hawkmoth, Death's Head Hawkmoth, Pacific Green Sphinx)

2. Lycaenidae are also one where it's just a whole family of lepidoptera we like (a friend mentioned them and we looked them up and were like "oh they're amazing" and they quickly became a favourite). I especially like the subfamily Polyommatinae (the Blues), with some of my favourites being the Friday's Blue, Melissa Blue, Holly Blue, and Western Pygmy-Blue. a lot of them have really interesting interactions with ants, such as relying on them for protection, but I know at least one species (the Large Blue) actually eats ants as a caterpillar

(image sources: Friday's Blue, Melissa Blue, Holly Blue, Western Pygmy-Blue)

3. Hesperiidae, also known as skippers, are another one where I love them just in general but I think the Fiery Skipper is probably one of my favourites. they're just very cute and they kind of remind me of hawkmoths but they're in the superfamily Papilionoidea so they're actually a type of butterfly

(image source)

4. the Sargasso Emerald is one of my favourites just because I think it's a cool little dude. look at this funky guy

(image source)

5. the Vapourer/Rusty Tussock is another one of the species we raised last year and I didn't know much about them before raising one but they have very distinctive looking caterpillars and the adults are sexually dimorphic to the point of looking like completely different species. the caterpillars are known to eat a huge variety of plants which is really convenient when it comes to raising them. I also love tussock caterpillars in general because they're all so fluffy and funky looking

(image sources: male Vapourer, female Vapourer, caterpillar)

6. I feel like I should include cicadas on the list because I just think they're really cool and I'm fascinated by periodical cicadas especially

(image sources: aberrant Cassin's 17-year Cicada, Common Cicada)

7. given that we're called the Ant System I think I'm contractually obligated to include at least one ant and I want to introduce everyone to the absolute little weirdos that are honeypot ants. some members of the colony store food in their abdomens and then regurgitate that for the other ants when needed. I think they're just fascinating little guys

(image sources: Mexican Honeypot Ants, Myrmecocystus)

8. I almost forgot to include these little guys but carpet beetles are going on the list because I see them a lot and I think they're pretty cute little guys

(image sources: adults, larva)

anyway I feel like this is a good list but I've probably also missed so many species that I absolutely adore and I keep stumbling across new ones that are really cool.

I've also been fixating on aberrant lepidoptera recently which isn't really a favourite kind of insect so much as just me being fascinated by all the ones where the colours or patterns are different to what you'd expect for that species